BIOLOGICAL NOTES OK THE PARASITES. 41 



with no success. Much lias been written upon this mite by Professor 

 Berrera and his staff. 



14. There are, however, native mites, including Tyroglyphus 

 breviceps Banks (Banks, L906, p. 17), which in some cases arc a con- 

 siderable factor in tin 4 destruction of the immature weevils. At 

 Calvert, Tex., in moist fallen squares collected September L3, II oul 

 of 18 cases of parasitism were mites. T. breviceps was described from 

 Victoria. 



1"). Hyduoa r<i pubescens Lee. This clerid was found to be pre- 

 daceous in its larval stage upon the boll weevil and all of its parasites. 

 The egg is probably inserted into the cell of the weevil, and the 

 young predator immediately starts its attack, consuming whatever 

 it finds in the way of insects, and finally spins a loosely meshed, 

 single-layer, silken cocoon, and pupates therein. From data of mate- 

 rial, collected at Waco, Tex., August 28, an approximation of the 

 developmental periods was obtained. The longest period from col- 

 lection to spinning was 34 days, the period in the cocoon was 12 

 days, the adult being formed 3 days before leaving the cocoon. In 

 order to prove the predaceous habit live weevil pupae were fur- 

 nished individual clerid larvae, and in most cases were completely 

 consumed. In several cases large larvae were found in Bracon 

 cocoons which were punctured with holes large enough only for the 

 very smallest of the larvae. 



16. In a number of cases, material collected at Victoria, Dallas, 

 and Brownsville gave evidence of a predaceous attack upon weevil 

 stages by Cathurtus cassix Reiche. 



IV. The Sources of the Parasites. 



In the preceding sections it has been pointed out that the para- 

 sites of Antkonomus grandis are also common to various other spe- 

 cies of weevils. There is a more or less clearly defined theory in 

 parasitology that the parasites of a particular genus or tribe are con- 

 fined to the insects of a particular family or order. With this idea 

 in mind a list of the known parasites of the Rhynchophora has bees 

 compiled, in order to show the characteristic groups and the possible 

 sources of boll-weevil parasites. 



PARASITES KNOWN TO ATTACK RHYNCHOPHORA. 



Parasite. Host. 



Fungi. 



Aspergillus E<p Inthonomas i j ran 'lis Boll. 



Cordyceps ep inthonomus grandis Boh. 



Empusa (Entomophthora) 8phaero8perma..Phytonomii8 punctatus Fab. 



Entomophthora phytonomi Phyttmomas panriatas Fab. 



Sporotrichum global [h ram Epini ras imbriralas Say. 



